Tag Archives: Leadership Coaching

Leadership

What Is Your Leadership Style?

Leadership takes many forms, but there are three styles of leadership that are the most prevalent. Good leaders do not take one form and stick to it – they look for the right situations for each style. However, good leaders do know what their dominant style is and capitalize on the benefits of that style. Let’s look at the three leadership styles, and the potential pitfalls of each. Think about which style is yours – and how you can modify it in various situations.

Autocratic leadership is also referred to as authoritarian leadership. In this style, the leader normally outlines what he or she wants and how this is to be achieved. In many ways, autocratic leadership isn’t leadership at all but a form of disciplinarian management. Are there situations where this style is effective? First of all, look at the organization. If the organization is well motivated and mature, an autocratic situation may be effective. Let’s say you have most of the information you need but the time to achieve a certain goal is very short. In a well-motivated organization, you can probably give an autocratic order and not be concerned about how it will be taken – as long as this does not become your dominant style. If you are a consistent autocratic leader, you’re probably not getting a good response from your organization. One of the pitfalls of autocratic leadership is the possibility of falling into an abusive or demeaning pattern – this is why you should only use an autocratic stance in rare situations and certainly not regularly. If you identify with a dominant autocratic style, consider transitioning into a more participative style of leadership.

Participative or democratic leadership is a style in which the leader still outlines a goal but allows some input from the organization as far as how the goal will be achieved. But a democratic leader still makes it necessary to obtain approval for decisions by any member of the team. In situations where information is spread out between the leader and the team members, a democratic style may work. This style can also be an appropriate way for an autocratic leader to transition out of that style – without giving total control to the team. This leadership style is very empowering to teams that have not felt empowered before. It’s also a great way to test the knowledge and ability of a team before transitioning into a much less controlling leadership style. Because this leadership style is basically one step up from autocracy, it may be easy for a leader to fall back into an authoritarian stance. If the team fails or falls short, democratic leadership allows them to re-formulate plans and activities – without telling them exactly what to do.

The third, and most empowering form of leadership is the laissez-faire or delegative style. The delegative leader sets an overall priority, goal, or instruction, but then stands out of the way to let things happen. Using this style, a leader takes responsibility for all decisions that are made – but leaves the decision making to the team. This also means that team members are expected to analyze, evaluate, and change issues and problems as they move along. This style of leadership is definitely appropriate with mature or more senior teams – the ones who have had the time to prove themselves to the leader and have the confidence to handle all issues. One of the biggest pitfalls of this type of leadership involves failure. If something goes wrong, this is not the place for a leader to blame the team – and this is more than likely a natural reaction for a laissez-faire leader.

Now that we’ve seen the three dominant leadership styles, which one are you? Remember that the mark of a good leader is the ability to use various styles depending on the situation – a bad leader sticks with the same style at all times. So what are some of the situations where each style is appropriate? If you have a new team, you may want to use the autocratic style as a means of assessing the group and its members. But what if you are placed in a position where most of the teams know their tasks well and would not react well to an autocratic stance? Use a participative style in this situation – allow the teams to have input in the decision making process. Remember that you can empower yourself as a leader as well as a team using this style. Finally, what if your team members know more about the situation than you do? Take a delegative approach and let the teams make their own decisions, all the while reminding them that you will be responsible for the outcomes.

When you’re deciding what leadership style to take, there are a few things to consider. First of all, how much time do you have? If you’re very limited in time, participative or autocratic may be the best style. Of course, this also depends on the team and its makeup – if you have an experienced team and limited time, there is no need to use an autocratic stance. Simply explain and emphasize that time is limited. You should also take into account who has the information related to the project or task at hand – if information is divided amongst you, the leader, and the team, you may want to take a participative stance. If your team has all of the information, take a delegative stance – let them use their information to come up with the best solutions. Also consider the type of task you’re looking at – how complicated is it? Compare this with the skill of the team and you should be able to choose an appropriate leadership style.

If your dominant style is more autocratic, you may want to examine what’s keeping you from moving into a participative stance. If you are one of the other two types, you’re probably getting a good response from your teams. Just remember to alter your leadership style based on situations – and don’t stick to one style regardless. When you begin to move around the different styles, you’ll find that your teams will respond.

Copyright 2008 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Managing Director and National Sales Trainer – assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his blog – and learn the legendary secrets of top business training programs at:

[http://www.BreathtakingLeadership.com] & [http://www.BryantNielson.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bryant_Nielson/142446

 

Leadership

Leadership Exists at All Levels of the Organization

When we think of leadership, many times we immediately think about senior and executive level managers. Although this is true, leadership exists at many levels below the senior one. First of all, you should examine your functional levels for emerging and existing leaders. This means that the very lowest levels of your organization will grow leaders – and you must look for them there. A functional leader is someone with a great deal of knowledge in a functional area, such as assembly lines or bank proof operators. The difference is that the functional leader uses that knowledge to empower others, solve problems, and develop his or her career. You may find that these functional leaders even exhibit more of a leadership role than their direct supervisors – and it’s up to you to decide what to do with them.

You can also look for leadership in the middle supervisory or management areas, as well as the functional supervisors. Many times our inclination is to leave this group out – they are productive, happy, and get good feedback from the people who report to them. Therefore we think that they’ve achieved their career goals – but think again. You’ll find that these middle management leaders are solving problems, championing your vision without being asked, and taking the time to motivate and inspire their workers. These leaders can be ready for advancement – and advanced leadership training. Take the time to seek them out. Obviously your senior and executive management teams are full of leaders – but it’s still your responsibility to keep them motivated, inspired, and in a leadership stance. In fact, it may be that this group is your biggest challenge – you’ve got to find a way to keep these leaders motivated even though they may have reached a staying point in their career with the organization.

So if you’ve identified these various levels of leaders, what can you do to develop, motivate, and retain them? At the functional levels, you should always offer additional functional training, whether it’s in the same area of expertise or across functions. Consider adding management and leadership courses within the function. For example, if you’ve got emerging leaders on the assembly line, develop courses that teach these leaders how to coach and motivate within the assembly line environment, using specific examples and scenarios from that area. The middle management and supervisory areas are the best places to begin leadership development in earnest. Offer management and leadership courses and seminars for anyone in these roles or anyone who is aspiring to or recommended for these roles.

These learning interventions include coaching, human resources management, and leadership. Open these courses and interventions up to the functional leaders at various times, as well. In fact, you may want to consider using a leadership assessment tool to prove the leadership aptitude at the functional levels – and open the leadership development program to those individuals. This level of development motivates the functional and middle level leaders to continue working hard and developing their skills. At the executive or senior level, leadership development should take on a much more “intense” tone. For example, leaders could undergo intense team building, such as ropes courses or survival type interventions to solidify the team. Or, leaders at this level can be placed into work groups to solve real organizational problems and lead the project teams. Development at this level should be real-time and use real problems – and you can gauge the leaders’ abilities in numerous competencies. This isn’t necessarily something you or your training department should tackle alone – there are numerous consultants and firms that can help you with leadership development at the senior levels.

Now that we’ve discovered where leadership exists and how to develop it, let’s talk about why you should take the time and money to do it. First of all, you’re creating a culture of leadership. In fact, this could be one of your values – the ones you want to pass into the organization’s culture. By identifying leaders and developing them, you’re showing that the organization is dedicated to maintaining leaders – and finding new ones at all levels. Not only this, you’re extending your culture of development. Your organization may offer training of many kinds, but adding leadership development shows a high commitment to excellence.

Any time you invest in leadership development, it gives you the opportunity to create and maintain a talent pool. You’ll be amazed at how your leaders react to their development – and how you begin to put together the puzzle pieces related to talent management and succession planning. As development grows, you’ll have a constant talent pool – and the ability to rest easy knowing that your leadership needs, planned or unplanned, are already met. Finally, and most importantly, identifying and developing leaders at all levels creates and maintains a level of motivation. You’ve taken the time to outline the competencies you look for in leaders, so aspiring leaders have a way to grow. They will strive for recognition as leaders – and inspire their direct reports to do so, as well. And the fact that you recognize leaders at all levels will inspire a motivation that’s hard to achieve.

Copyright 2008 Bryant Nielson. All Rights Reserved.

Bryant Nielson – Managing Director and National Sales Trainer – assists executives, business owners, and top performing sales executives in taking the leap from the ordinary to extraordinary. Bryant is a trainer, business & leadership coach, and strategic planner for sales organizations. Bryant’s 27 year business career has been based on his results-oriented style of empowering.

Subscribe to his blog – and learn the legendary secrets of top business training programs at:

[http://www.BreathtakingLeadership.com] & [http://www.BryantNielson.com]

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bryant_Nielson/142446

 

Leadership

Executive Leadership Training Builds Leadership Skills 3 Ways

Executive leadership training can yield better returns on your investment than taking a few leadership skills training courses or buying 10 or 12 good business leadership books.

When conducted over long periods of time, a reasonably priced executive leadership program can be more effective than the popular 2-day, 3-day or one week formats used in many less expensive leadership training courses.

Educational experiences which segment, focus on and support the delivery of lessons in a modular format usually yield better results than reading tons of business leadership books.

An effective executive leadership training program contains skills development exercises and courses which are designed to energize your leadership performances. However, there is no secret to becoming a better leader, you simply need to employ your strengths, practice your skills and adjust your path towards progress.

You don’t have to take my word for it but ask anyone in business or government services. The truth is this, long term, personalized, multi-modal executive leadership training programs are the very finest educational investments you can make.

Your leadership training program works best when it includes all of these elements:

 

  1. The intensity, volume and focus of subject matter covered
  2. The level of coaching, mentoring and consulting support provided
  3. The variety of practical applications and relevant exercises specified
  4. The abundance of powerful tools and resources supplied
  5. The energy of interactivity involved between the student and training provider.

 

The more frequently organizational professionals, managers and entrepreneurs engage in and are held accountable for their executive leadership training experiences, the better their leadership skills and their organizations become.

Leaders in many of the world’s prestigious companies, universities and professional firms, encourage their promising employees to:

 

  • Participate in executive leadership training, development and coaching programs;
  • Read and study business leadership books and stories about effective leaders;
  • Update their leadership skills with ad hoc, shorter-term, topical training courses.

 

If your executive leadership education helps you to deal with, work through and guide others in overcoming your real-life challenges, you will evolve into a truly excellent leader. Discovering ways to help you assess, improve and correct your performance, means you must:

  • Boost your awareness or understanding of and confidence in your strengths, natural talents and abilities;
  • Invest time in applying, practicing and mastering the lessons learned in your leadership skills training courses;
  • Ingest a steady, meaty diet of business leadership books describing methods, strategies and processes used by other successful leaders.

 

This article suggests you use these three strategies to quickly, competently and confidently improve your executive leadership training.

Your leadership training. development or coaching provider may suggest you employ a system to help you record, reflect upon and realize:

  1. How much progress you are achieving,
  2. How far you’ve gone towards reaching your full potential
  3. What you need to do to keep your weaknesses from impacting your effectiveness

 

Best-in-class executive training programs include daily readings of classic and newly published business leadership books, articles and news stories to keep important leadership skills, various situations or challenges and enduring principles in front of the student’s mind.

Effective leadership development programs offer modules of skills-based courses and application workshops featuring weekly lessons of not more than one to two hours. Breaking up the vast field of team or organizational leadership practice into sizable chunks gives the student time to absorb, try-out and perfect the fundamentals of leading.

Executive leadership training is a viable option for you if you are a knowledge professional, a manager or supervisor, an executive or director or if you are an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial professional.

When choosing your development program be sure it offers a large collection of skills training and exercise sessions on the crucial tasks and duties you’ll need. Of course, you should be given access to a vast library of business leadership books, articles and similar resources.

Executive leadership training is a journey on the road less traveled. If you are willing to follow the many twists and turns found in your leadership skills training courses and business leadership books, you will succeed and find your bliss!

Copyright © 2008, Mustard Seed Investments Inc., All rights reserved.

Bill Thomas conducts executive leadership training programs for Awesome Leaders and Innovative Leaders – he provides professionals, managers at all levels, entrepreneurs and directors with intense, focused leadership subjects, coaching and consulting support, practical exercise sessions, tons of powerful tools and energetic interactions with clients.

His programs are cost-effective and guaranteed to maximize your success.

Awesome Leadership Programs and Innovative Leadership Training Programs

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Bill_Thomas/462

 

Sales Coaching

Which of These 5 Sales Struggles Would You Like to End? – Sales Coach

Working with many salespeople from top producers to those struggling to exist it’s clear there are five areas of sales that hold the greatest potential for improvement. Top producers work to fine tune their effectiveness in these areas. And others struggle to gain competence. These five areas include:

 

  1. Prospecting
  2. Overcoming objections
  3. Closing the sale
  4. Time management
  5. Consistency and momentum

 

The first part of your struggle comes from knowing what to do. Yes, many salespeople think they know what they need to do because of the sales training they’ve had. However, that sales training isn’t as effective as it could be because it’s event based making it impossible for you to absorb and apply the information you need, your prospects haven’t had the same training consequently they don’t play by the rules, and it isn’t specific to you and your exact challenges. Another mistake is doing exactly what everyone else in your industry is doing. Bottom line, if what you’re doing isn’t producing the results you want it’s time to figure out what to do to get those results.

The next gap is knowing how to do what you know you need to do. If you’ve ever watched professional sports you may have noticed that the difference between how the super stars do things and how the others do things isn’t easily observable. The same is true for the sales professional.

The only way to increase sales is to take action. Although most salespeople are great at taking action they aren’t great at taking the right action. Right actions are the actions that consistently produce the results you want in the way you want.

There are more opportunities around you each day than you could ever fully take advantage of. The first step is opening your eyes to those opportunities. The next step is opening the door to taking advantage of those opportunities that are in alignment with your sales objectives.

Finally, if you want to overcome your sales struggles you must allow no excuses from this point forward. Everyone has things that are getting in their way, and if you let them they will keep you from getting what you want. In spite of that fact, you don’t have to allow them to keep you from getting what you want. You do have to develop plans for working around those obstacles, and then immediately implement your plans.

Yes, now you can discover the “7 Secrets Top Producers Know that You Can Put to Use in the Next 9 Days” [http://increasesalescoach.com/]

Turn yourself into a Top Producing Sale Genie [http://increasesalescoach.com/sales-genie.html]

Increase Sales Coach Gets Results Sales Training Can’t

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/1023114

Leadership

How to Run a Leadership Activity

The big buzz in the Learning and Development community is about Leadership development. “If only we could train good leaders,” goes the argument, “we could be beat the world”

This belief is so well ingrained that hardly anyone stops to question it. But when you step back for a second, there are a number of huge questions. For example:

1. If leaders need training, who trained Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin?

2. If leaders can be easily trained, why are there any followers (which begs the question :)

3. What is so great about being a leader anyway?

4. If everyone understands how to lead, doesn’t that cause a problem when followers are led badly?

We all know good leaders. We knew them when we were in the playground; and when they conceived a mischief, we followed. We probably tried our first clandestine cigarette at the behest of a leader and pursued our childhood interests at their bidding too. So it is clear that leadership qualities are not only apparent from a young age but are an important part of our development.

So why do we think that we need to train leaders? Well for several reasons. Firstly, although leadership may be an innate talent, like all natural gifts, if it is not channelled correctly, bad habits develop and blossoming potential can go unrealized. Secondly, there is more need for leadership than there are candidates. Playground leaders may go on to military careers or become high flyers in the world of big business, but they are not likely to end up running a small social services unit in an out of the way provincial town.

Finally, leaders need to be part of a team, and for the team to function efficiently, the led need to know the ground rules so that they can serve effectively. So having concluded that leadership training is both necessary and desirable, how can it be organized?

The jumping off point for any training course is, and has to be, formal instruction in the theory and principles of leadership. There are just three ways of doing this.

1. Books. There are literally hundred of texts on leadership. Most of the business schools also provide free podcasts and webinars. The eager student can soak up any number of treatises on various leadership systems and processes but be cautious.

Some of the best writing is outdated and doesn’t meet with modern management ideas. Many of the academic pieces are useful but based on case studies at the very peak of leadership experience and thus divorced from practical reality. While books are an essential resource, they are only satisfactory as a reference and as part of more focussed study.

2. Courses. There may not be as many courses as there are books but it feels that way. Regardless of your discipline, geography academic background or vocational sector, there will be a leadership course bespoked to your needs and packaged to meet your requirements. Although many of these courses will be tailored to your industry by an experienced practitioner; in the end, the leadership system, process or methodology taught will be as much a matter of personal preference of the trainer as it will be reflective of any best practice. In reality there are hundreds of leadership models.

All will be based on observation and research and will have some applicability, but there is no “right” or “wrong” system. All a course does is highlight one particular approach and provide the basis for consistency amongst those that attend.

3. Practical Experience. The sure fire way of developing leadership skills is to practice. If under the leader’s leadership, the outcome is “success” then he or she needs to capture the behaviours that led to that success. And if it was failure, then behaviours need to be modified and tried again. Which is why coaching and mentoring are so effective.

But of course, while practical experience may be very desirable, it can also be expensive and risky. So how can organizations who want to imbue leadership qualities provide the opportunity to practice in a safe environment which allows emerging leaders to make their mistakes and learn from them?

Although I tire of hearing clients say that their business is “different”, the truth is that no enterprise is identical to any other. Just as every person is an individual, so every organization reflects the individuals in it in terms of history, culture, systems, processes and resources. There may be common characteristics that may mark out a leader in a company but there is no absolute answer.

Organizations have to develop training regimes that suit their own purpose. Regardless of how this is achieved, the starting point will nearly always be a process, model or philosophy that expresses the culture of “how ‘leadership’ gets done around here.”

Whilst there is no doubt that formal courses have an important role to play in defining a common understanding of, and approach to leadership, in the final analysis, the practical element of developing leadership skills must be an internal process. Although not necessarily universally recognized or accepted, many leadership approaches are based on a six stage model:

1. History: How did we get to where we are?

2. Situation: What’s going on right now?

3. Forecast: What will happen if we don’t change?

4. Vision: Where do we want to go?

5. Strategy: How do we use our resources to meet our objectives?

6. Implementation: Timetable, actions & responsibilities

This model suggests that in order to be successful, the leader has to ask six basic questions:

A. Where do we want to be?

B. Where are we coming from?

C. Where are we heading if we keep going as now?

D. Where are we now?

E. By when do we want to be there?

F. How will we get there and what do we need?

By following this approach the leader can structure his team, deploy his resources and provide support, guidance and information that will get the team there.

Continue reading →